Hasta La Gadget!

Gagging for Glass but can’t afford Google’s $1,500 Explorer Edition? GlassUp thinks it may have the answer, a wearable display that looks almost like a regular set of glasses, and harnesses the power of your existing smartphone to flash real-time information into your eyeline. On show in prototype form at CeBIT, and set to ship later in the year, GlassUp takes a more humble approach to wearables than Google does with Glass, making its headset a companion display rather than a standalone computer.

Whereas Glass has a full Android-powered computer integrated into the headset, GlassUp is merely a wireless display, using Bluetooth to link to your Android, iOS, or – eventually – Windows Phone handset. That keeps power consumption down; a standby time of around 150hrs is promised for the first-gen model, or a full day of periodic use such as, say, when emails or Tweets come in. An updated model will use Bluetooth 4.0, making it more power-efficient.

What differentiates GlassUp is the display technology itself. Whereas Google has opted for a transparent prismic display embedded in a glass block positioned at the corner of your eye, GlassUp’s patented system uses a micro-projector fixed on the inside of the glasses arm. That focuses a yellow monochromatic image on the inner surface of the right lens, at 320 x 240 resolution. Not enough to replace your phone or tablet for multimedia duties, true, but certainly sufficient for text updates and basic graphics.

Like Glass, there are a fair few sensors and controls integrated into the arm of the glasses: GlassUp has a touch-surface which recognizes tap and double-tap, long-press, and swipe, in addition to a power/control button. There’s also an accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor, and altimeter.

Unfortunately, the prototype GlassUp brought along to CeBIT wasn’t market-ready. More striking in its design than the concept – which manages to look reasonably discrete, in a chunky retro way – the silver headset required a USB link to a computer for its display signal and power, and the projection itself is onto a noticeably orange-tinted pane in the right lens. Meanwhile, even when the battery-powered version is ready, if you want to have the display active all the time – such as when navigating, for instance – the runtimes will be “a few hours” rather than the all-day longevity promised with more sporadic use.

GlassUp argues that, whereas Google’s wearable requires users to glance up and to the side to see the display, their system is far more discrete: the information floats directly in your eyeline. Another advantage is availability and price, though neither Glass nor GlassUp are quite ready for the mass-market. GlassUp is accepting preorders for the headset, at €299/$399, with deliveries of the first units expected in September 2013.

GlassUp AR glasses hands-on: Google Glass gets competition is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Angry Birds on an 84-inch 4K tablet? Not quite, but if your iPad or Nexus 10 simply isn’t big enough or high-res enough, MyMultitouch has an 84-inch beast to offer instead. The Germany company is showing off its biggest multitouch table/display to-date at CeBIT, a vast 3.840 x 2,160 Ultra HD screen called the Alvaro GIANT capable of running Windows, Android or most anything else, and we couldn’t resist getting our fingers all over it.

This isn’t the first huge multitouch screen we’ve seen – 3M had an 84-incher at CES, for instance – but it’s one of the first with a price tag attached. MyMultitouch tells us the display will retail for around €33,000, making this a $43k plaything.

If you simply have to have a vast screen that’s finger-friendly, though, the Alvaro GIANT certainly delivers. We first navigated through Windows 8, tapping, swiping and pinching through the usual Metro-style interface as we would on a far smaller tablet; since the display can run off of any HDMI input (as well as DVI, RGB, AV, and DisplayPort; MyMultitouch also offers an optional integrated PC for standalone use) you could hook up basically any Windows 8 PC to it and suddenly have a vast worksurface to operate from.

That showed its merit when we flipped over to Android, running off a simple “thumbdrive” sized stick computer. The 4K resolution was downscaled to suit Android’s display limitations, but Angry Birds and the regular Android UI looked great spread across 84-inches.

It probably comes as little surprise, but home users wanting more room to throw birds at pigs isn’t MyMultitouch’s target audience. Instead, the Alvaro GIANT is positioned as a tool for retail, display, and industrial implementation: the top glass layer is toughened, and the system recognizes up to 32-points of contact simultaneously. It’s also capable of differentiating between different hand positions, such as whether a fist is in contact or a hand with spread fingers. It’ll track users even if they’re wearing gloves, too.

$43k might be a whole lot of money on the face of it, but the Alvaro GIANT finds itself in good Ultra HD company. Samsung’s 85-inch Ultra HD TV announced at CES back in January is a cool $38,000 after all, and if you try touching that all you’ll get are greasy finger-smudges.

MyMultitouch 84-inch 4K touch-display hands-on: Angry Birds goes massive is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Windows 8‘s finger-focus has spawned some interesting form-factors, and following in the footsteps of Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga comes the Panasonic Toughbook CF-AX2, a rugged twist on the 360-degree hinge concept we’ve been playing with here at CeBIT 2013. A compact 11.6-incher with a 1366 x 768 10-finger multitouch display, the CF-AX2 runs Intel’s latest Core i5 processor for lengthy runtimes – Panasonic claims up to eight hours on a single charge – and, thanks to some hot-swappable battery magic, allows you to switch out for a new power pack without shutting down.

That’s because there’s a smaller, internal battery inside the Toughbook’s compact footprint, which tides the CF-AX2 over while you drop out the first pack and slot in a second one. It’s a factor that will make the Toughbook particularly appealing to Panasonic’s target audience: mobile professionals who’ll also appreciate the drop and bump resilience.

Inside, there’s a Core i5 3427U processor and Intel HD 4000 graphics, and Panasonic has managed to accommodate no small number of ports despite the size. You get VGA, HDMI, two USB 3.0, ethernet, audio in/out, and an SD card reader, as well as the usual WiFi and Bluetooth (with a discrete switch to turn the wireless off).

The touchscreen is bright and responsive, and has a welcome matte finish for anti-glare purposes. It was certainly capable of holding up to the CeBIT show floor lights, which bodes well for outdoor use. Next to the webcam is a physical Windows button for use when you fold the CF-AX2 back into tablet mode (though it’s worth noting that it leaves the keyboard and trackpad exposed on the opposite side, the same issue as with the Yoga. The chassis is also somewhat plasticky, at odds with the ruggedized finish.

Panasonic is already offering the Toughbook CF-AX2 in Japan, with European sales kicking off this quarter.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-AX2 hands-on: Extreme Yoga is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We may not love the austere devices that are foisted upon us for our daily 9-to-5, but at least Fujitsu’s trying to make our late-night commutes a little less unpleasant. The company has outed a trio of 20mm-thick Lifebook E series laptops that hover just outside the entrance to Intel’s exclusive Ultrabook club. The first to try its luck with the guest list is the 13.3-inch E733, weighing in a 1.7kg with a screen resolution of 1,366 x 768. If that doesn’t succeed, then perhaps the 14-inch E743, with its 1.9kg body and 1,600 x 900 screen might get past. Of course, bringing up the rear is the 15.6-inch E753, which weighs 2.1kg and a choice of 1,366 x 768 or 1,920 x 1,080 displays — but since none of them meet Intel’s latest mandated requirements to bear the Ultrabook name, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be let in. Naturally, as we’re here at CeBIT, we indulged in our favorite hobby, which is smearing our paws all over this hardware to bring you our first impressions.

Filed under: Laptops

Comments

MSI is in a froth of gaming frenzy at CeBIT 2013, with a new 27-inch gaming-centric all-in-one PC taking pride of place in the updated range. The MSI AG2712 squeezes Windows 8, Intel third-gen Core i5/i7 processors, and a touchscreen into its slimline chassis, but also finds room for a discrete graphics chip. We caught up with the new model to find out whether that made it special.

If you’ve seen a recent MSI all-in-one, the AG2712 shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. It’s a symphony of plastics, stacking various colors, shades, and finishes – clear, black, grey; matte and gloss – into a blunt-edged monolith with an adjustable stand (angle, not height).

It’s not going to win any design awards, nor any for quality feel; still, it does what it promises to. Down the left edge there are power/control buttons, indicator lights, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and a memory card reader. On a recessed panel on the back, you get two more USB 3.0, along with a pair of USB 2.0, audio in/out, an ethernet port, and VGA output. You also get a pair of HDMI ports, one outputting for a second display, and the second accepting an input so that you could use the AG2712 as a standalone display for a PS3 or Xbox 360, for instance.

Finally, on the right edge there’s a tray-loading optical drive. MSI throws WiFi in the box too, though if you want the 10-point multitouch display you’ll have to pay extra; as standard, it’s a regular Full HD screen. Either way, you get a welcome anti-glare finish which we found did a decent job of avoiding the show-floor lighting.

It’s the pure specifications that MSI is most proud of, though, and so you get a choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors, paired with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670X graphics. Audio is courtesy of THX TruStudio Pro processing, though we’d be tempted to plug in some external speakers since, while the AG2712 goes loud, it lacks thump at the low end.

MSI isn’t saying how much the AG2712 will cost, at this stage, and given the all-in-one is competitive with a laptop on specs, but not a regular desktop, we’d hope the company bears that in mind when it slaps on the stickers.

MSI AG2712 Gaming All-in-One PC hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.